Feeling a little deprived of media attention, a well known reborn cricket player has got everyone all worked up over one of his Twitter posts last week.
His tweet complained about the behaviour of a bicycle rider that hit his car twice whilst on the way home from a training session, though the rider and an unnamed witness seem to have a different version of events, with his rant calling for cyclists to be registered.
First things first though, to the best of my knowledge, no matter how many times a person hits a car, they cannot hurt it. Even if it is a Mercedes Coupe, as the precious dear was driving at the time. Whereas even a gentle tap from the said vehicle has the potential to cause serious injury to any bike rider.
As a bike rider myself, and not knowing who was to blame for the altercation, I’d like to suggest that this particular individual get out from behind the steering wheel of his car and spend a week ride around town himself, and see what even law abiding cyclists have to put up with. Who knows, he may even change his tune and his driving behaviour…
What is amusing about the whole media circus surrounding the tweet is that there are some groups that are talking his calls for the registration of cyclists seriously. Every motorised vehicle on the road is registered, yet what has that done to stop bad behaviour of other drivers?
How many times have you been driving on any road and either been harassed or seen another vehicle harassed by a semi trailer or tandem dump trucks? We’ve all seen a truck pull that close to the rear of the vehicle you can count how many bugs there are on the radiator, using the size as the vehicle to intimidate the driver in front to change lanes. I have even had this happen to me as well, so I do know how intimidating it can be. As a former truck driver myself, I find this behaviour to be downright deadly, and should not be tolerated.
Sadly, far too many people whether they drive a truck, car or ride a bicycle think that once the rubber hits the road, that they own it and everyone else has to cater to them, rather than share the road with others.
Sadly, here in Queensland, in the first 20 days of the new year, 17 people have lost their lives due to vehicle accidents. With a state election due to be called in a matter of weeks, there is no better time than now for both sides of government to tell us how they plan to reduce this number. Introducing more covert speed cameras is not the answer, nor is spending thousands on new yellow highway patrol vehicles. Actually having more visible police vehicles on the road may be part of it. After all, we all remember the embarrassment about being pulled over by the police and the dressing down that got whilst the fine was being written out. Yet get a fine in the mail, and we forget about it as soon as it is added to the other bills that need to be paid.
If 17 people died on Queensland beaches in 20 days, the governemnt would be having all sorts of crisis meetings in an attempt to stop the number rising higher, yet when it comes to the number of people killed on the road, they are eerily quiet on any practical solutions. Without laying the blame solely at their feet, the general public is far too quiet about it too.
Have we become that desensitised to the death of another human being on the roads that it fails to elicit any sort of response or demand for action?
How about making traffic offences criminal, prosecution those who wilfully break the law under OH&S legislation, and a Zero BAC for starters?
Our roads are the only environment where you can enter someone else’s workplace, behave in a manner that is dangerous, or without due care and attention and only cop a relatively small fine as a penalty. I cannot legally operate a forklift with a BAC over 0.00, yet I can drive a car and as long as I stay below 0.05, I can legally continue what I am doing.
Where’s the sense in that?
Sadly, there is no quick fix solution to this issue, though a sure place to start is with yourself the next time that you get behind the wheel and make sure you choose to drive with the right attitude.
